When adventurers like Henry Hudson and Jacques Cartier were exploring remote regions of Canada, they didn’t have the luxury of stopping at a NorthMart to grab a coffee and a deli sandwich. Most history books gloss over this fact. Nowadays, surviving Canada’s brutal winters is a lot easier thanks to North West Company, which operates about 200 food and general merchandise stores across Northern Canada and Alaska under the NorthMart, North, Quickstop and other banners.
Citing “continued higher than historical demand for consumables,” the retailer posted same-store sales growth of 15.5 per cent as earnings per share leaped 30.3 per cent in the second quarter, prompting Dollarama to roughly double its full-year comparable sales-growth forecast. With the shares hitting new highs on the news, Dollarama investors are dining out to celebrate their good fortune.